Desgaste de huesos

Desgaste de huesos
 

English?

I'm not certain what this expression is supposed to refer to. Based on the meanings of the individual words, my best guess is "bone wear" or "bone erosion".

Some context would help to determine what a good translation would be in the context in which you found it.

Osteoporosis is the medical condition characterized by the wearing down of the bones.
In recent years osteoporosis has become a very common term dispite the fact that it is a multisyllabic word, which is something most Anglos hate.

When do we use the wear and tear of something

English has developed with a high percentage of words of one syllable. The King James bible has 60% of words of one syllable. Generally a string of short words is a natural choice over one long one. I think this is a charming aspect of the language. There are some who disagree, but they are entitled to their floccinaucinihilipilification.

When it´s a machine. If you rent a house or apartment with furniture, then on leaving you would pay for any damage or breakages you have caused. You would not have to pay for a general decrease in quality (for example if the refrigerator or TV broke down through no fault of yours). This is known as general wear and tear.

Perhaps Robin is referring to osteoarthritis; when joints cartilage physically wears down and bones get damaged. The colloquial way to call that condition in Spanish is "desgaste de huesos".

The medical name for this type of joint damage is osteoarthritis, which is distinguished from rheumatoid arthritis.

For sure, I agree... but since there is a colloquial name for it in Spanish, maybe Robin was asking about such equivalent (if there is one) in English. :)

Hmm, I don't think we have a term that's more colloquial that "arthritis". Well, maybe "gout" if the joint is in the feet, but according to my dictionary "gout" translates as "gota".

Thank you, wrholt. :rose: Now Robin has an answer, both for the condition and for the verb. :D

I agree about "gota"... that's another disease. ;(